Founded in 1993 by brothers Tom and David Gardner, The Motley Fool helps millions of people attain financial freedom through our website, podcasts, books, newspaper column, radio show, and premium investing services.

How to Find the Greatest Growth

A look back at the Holy Grail of ultimate growth stocks.

Wal-Mart is the No. 1 retailer in the world. Back in 1972, it was breaking the rules of the American marketplace. Recently, I've studied the company's archived annual reports, because they offer a blueprint of a small company on the verge of world domination.

A brief look backThe story of Wal-Mart's rise is the stuff of legend. The cover of the company's 1972 annual report featured the locations of its 51 stores in five states: Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Today, there are 1,500 stores -- in eight countries! In 1972, Sam Walton totaled 2,300 employees in the Wal-Mart world. Today, there are 1.8 million associates. Since the early 1970s, the company has increased more than 1,000 times in value -- growing from a $195 million micro cap to a $200 billion global leader.

Impressive? Quite. Amazing? Certainly. Reproducible? Absolutely.

So, then, how did they do it? How could investors have known way back when that Wal-Mart was a Rule Breaking growth stock?

Clues to useThree traits jumped out at me while I flipped through the pages of the Wal-Mart annual:

Based on top-line growth, the company was going nowhere but up. From 1969 to 1970, sales grew 44%. From 1970 to 1971, they grew another 44%. From 1971 to 1972, sales grew an astounding 76%. Sales were increasing and accelerating.

Management at the young company was competent and shareholder-friendly. Return on equity (ROE) was 35% in 1971. Return on assets was 10%. The very next year, ROE was an absurd 63%. In other words, Sam Walton and his team were maximizing the business model.

President Sam Walton had a clear and compelling vision for the future. That vision included dominant store growth in communities within 300 miles of the distribution center and an efficient business model that could maintain the lowest possible prices and margins.

Those three Rule Breaking tenets formed the basis of Wal-Mart's sustainable advantage and helped it become one of the strongest public companies in the world.

Powerful portfolio potentialAccelerated sales, sustainable advantage, and smart management are three factors the Motley Fool Rule Breakers team uses to identify tomorrow's landscape-changing companies today. They were the keys to Wal-Mart's success, and they also recently catapulted a number of other big gainers, including Amedisys(NASDAQ:AMED), NasdaqStock Market(NASDAQ:NDAQ), International Assets Holding(NASDAQ:IAAC), and GameStop(NYSE:GME) as well as Rule Breakers recommendations AkamaiTechnologies(NASDAQ:AKAM) and The Knot(NASDAQ:KNOT) and former pick Bankrate(NASDAQ:RATE).

Each of these companies has seen revenue growth accelerate the past three years. And since then, their stock prices have all more than doubled.

Fool co-founder David Gardner and his Rule Breakers team have found more companies that meet their Rule Breakers criteria. Click here to learn more about the picks -- free for 30 days. Why? Because it pays to look for companies that are poised to break the rules of mediocre business.

This article was originally published on Aug. 22, 2005. It has been updated.

Tim Hanson owns none of the companies mentioned in this article. GameStop is a Stock Advisor selection. Wal-Mart is an Inside Value recommendation. No Fool is too cool for disclosure.